Dumont High School alums launch training service locally

DUMONT — Twelve years ago, Jeff Fernandez and Surag Mungekar graduated from high school here at the top of their class. They recently returned to the rolling campus, where an online educational tool they created will launch soon.

From left, Jeff Fernandez, Nick Narodny and Surag Mungekar are donating their firm's product to Dumont High. Fernandez and Mungekar are Dumont grads.

Entrepreneurs Fernandez and Mungekar, along with California-bred Nick Narodny, all 29, founded Manhattan-based Grovo Learning Inc. three years ago. Now flush with $5.5 million in venture capital, the online learning company this week is releasing what it considers its flagship product. It's a Web-based platform, or so-called dashboard, called Grovo for Teams, developed out of a pilot program with Chevron Corp., that companies can use in-house to train employees about the Internet and social media.

Grovo's website, Grovo.com, offers nearly 4,000 instructional videos on cloud computing and social-media topics. The videos, one minute long, cover basic Internet skills, such as how to use email, to more advanced topics for professionals. There is a multiple-choice quiz after each video.

The Teams platform, built on the library of content the company has produced, is the next step for the company. Grovo, a shortened term for "grow your vocation," is hiring salespeople to pitch Teams to corporations and educational institutions, including colleges.

"Now it's about growth, it's about accelerating the business, investing in marketing and sales, and taking our product to the world," Grovo CEO Fernandez said during a recent interview at Dumont High School.

In a gesture of gratitude to the schools that set its executives on the road to success, Grovo is donating use of its Teams training product to the Dumont school district. Over the next few months, Teams will be deployed at five borough schools, including Dumont High. Under the proposed arrangement, teachers and students would use Teams for cloud computing training and social-media education, Fernandez said.

"We still need to learn a lot, and their product is going to do the job," said Claudia Vesley, the borough school district's supervisor of technology.

Grovo offers 30 percent of its content, or about 1,300 videos, for free. The remaining video lessons are available as part of a premium subscription called Grovo Pro, which costs $15.95 a month or $99 a year. If a company has at least five employees with Grovo Pro subscriptions, it can receive the Teams training service as part of those subscriptions.

Grovo, which has 5,500 square feet of mostly open space near Union Square in New York, employs 26 full-time workers. They include a cadre of Bergen County residents and Dumont High School alums such as 2001 graduate Matt Clark, director of communications. There is a large gong in the office by Clark's desk, which is rung when Grovo scores a big deal or sale.

"We love that gong," Clark said.

Strong ties

Fernandez and Grovo Chief Technology Officer Mungekar live in Manhattan, but their ties to Dumont and the high school remain strong. The two have been best friends since first grade and were standouts in school. Fernandez, a football All-State punter and placekicker, was valedictorian of the Class of 2001, while Mungekar was salutatorian. Fernandez went to Harvard University while Mungekar attended Columbia University.

They said they had stellar teachers at Dumont High, which has an expansive engineering, technology and computer science program. Fernandez, Mungekar and Clark are remembered by the staff, as well.

"The one thing that sticks out with me with all of them is the work ethic," said Dumont High School Principal James Wichmann, who was football coach and a health-class teacher when the Grovo trio attended the school. "Anything you asked them to do they did at 110 percent effort. That's the type of students they were. That's the type of athletes they were."

After college, Fernandez, who lives with Mungekar, worked with Narodny at a start-up called Clickable. They got the idea for Grovo one weekend when someone texted them to ask how they could connect Google Analytics to their Wordpress blog. They decided to create a website that could provide such information in brief video clips.

Can-do attitude

They launched Grovo in 2010, with Chevron becoming one of their first corporate customers in 2011. The next year, Chevron asked Grovo to train its employees on cloud computing and social media sites, apps and topics. That initiative formed the basis for Teams, which Chevron is now using to train employees all over the world.

Grovo's client list also includes Pitney Bowes, ReachLocal, Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty, MediaMath and more than 250 Fortune 1000 — and 100 Inc. 5000 — companies. Its customers on the educational front include Flipped High School, Chicago Tech Academy and Leeds Trinity.